JOHANNESBURG, 4 September 2009 (IRIN) - The production of maize, South Africa's staple food, could drop by as much as 30 percent in another two decades as climate change brings more intense droughts, but little is known about how this will affect farmers.

Now, an analytical tool based on a study, Mapping South African Farming Sector Vulnerability to Climate Change and Variability, has been developed to help policy-planners identify the communities most vulnerable to climate change and help them prepare for radically different farming conditions.

South Africa has approximately 100 million hectares of agricultural land, of which 14 million receive sufficient rainfall to grow crops.

In the densely populated rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal Province on the east coast, the largest agricultural contributor to South Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP), small-scale farmers dependent on rain-fed agriculture were found to be among the least resistant to global warming. HIV prevalence is also particularly high. Farmers in Limpopo Province, in the north, and Eastern Cape Province, on the southeast coast, were also vulnerable.

“The farmers in those provinces have less resilience because the areas they live in are undeveloped, with no means to access drought-tolerant crop varieties,” said Glwadys Gbetibouo, a researcher at the Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy in Africa, at the University of Pretoria, and one of the study’s two authors; the other writer was Claudia Ringler, a senior researcher at the International Food Policy Research Institute, a US-based think-tank.

''The farmers in those provinces have less resilience because the areas they live in are undeveloped, with no means to access drought-tolerant crop varieties''
The tool is an index of 19 environmental and socio-economic indicators that are used to determine vulnerability, such as frequency of droughts, percentage of irrigated land, farm income, farm size, HIV prevalence and farm assets in the country’s nine provinces.

The Western Cape and Gauteng provinces, which have a high level of infrastructural development and literacy but make a much lower agricultural contribution to GDP, are relatively low on the vulnerability index.

What can be done

The study suggests reducing pressure on natural resources, improving environmental risk management, and providing social safety nets for the poor.

In the highly vulnerable provinces policy-makers should enact measures to promote market participation, especially among small-scale farmers; encourage the diversification of livelihoods to make people less dependent on agriculture; put in place social programmes and increase spending on health, education and welfare to help maintain and strengthen physical and intangible human capital.

Gbetibouo called for the development of infrastructure in rural areas, and the provision of agricultural insurance. In high exposure regions, especially coastal zones, priority should be given to developing more accurate systems for early warning of extreme climatic events such as drought or floods.

According to the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, food production in South Africa has increased over the last 40 years, mainly through improvements in productivity, but production per capita in the Southern African Development Community as a whole is declining.

"There have been large drops in production (notably 1981–1983 and 1989–1993) that coincided with major droughts followed by periods of recovery. But these recovery periods have not been sufficient for food production to keep up with population growth. This could become an area of concern, as it may have an impact on food security, not only in South Africa, but in the region also."

irinnews

BOSSO, 4 September 2009 (IRIN) - Sex workers crossing into Niger’s east, as well as busy border traffic of livestock breeders, businessmen and migrants, boost the risk of HIV infections in Diffa region, according to the government. But despite the region having the country’s highest recorded HIV prevalence, there are too-few testing centres and little awareness about the virus among a transient population, local officials told IRIN.

Diffa’s official HIV prevalence rate is 1.7 percent, based on a 2006 government study.

But the real infection rate is likely to be much higher, according to Boukar Ousmane Moktar, director of a health centre in Bosso, Niger’s last border post before crossing into Chad. During the first half of 2009, he told IRIN 73 of 169 HIV tests given in his centre came back positive. “Of them are tuberculosis patients in whom we suspected co-infections,” said Moktar. He said nine out of 10 tuberculosis patients on average tested positive for the virus.

Nana Youssey, head of the local non-profit National Association for the Promotion of Public Health and a trainer of NGOs under the World Bank-funded Multi-Country HIV/AIDS Program (MAP), told IRIN government surveys have largely overlooked Diffa until recent years. “In the country’s national health survey of 2002, Diffa was not even included. It was not until 2006 Diffa was included. We are so far out here and the terrain is really difficult that access even just to study HIV risk is itself a huge problem.”

Youssey told IRIN she trained local NGOs to raise awareness of HIV from 2004 until December 2008 and is in the process of evaluating this project’s impacts.

Sex workers

In Bataoungour, a village 10km from the border town of Bosso, a group of women told IRIN they stopped working as sex workers when they received microcredit from a World Bank-funded project. Altogether, seven groups of 20 sex workers each received microcredit.

Bawa Ari, a 33-year-old mother of four told IRIN she started prostitution in 2005 after leaving her husband to whom she was married at age 12. “He never took care of me and did not feed or clothe us.” She and other sex workers received small credits in exchange for promising


to leave prostitution and helping to educate other sex workers about HIV risks.

Ari told IRIN she never used condoms and did not see one until 2008 as part of the microcredit and HIV training she received.

But when IRIN asked her and the other women in her credit group how many had been tested for HIV, all replied no.

The head of the NGO that worked with the women, Madou Abbakoura, told IRIN the NGO’s goal was to get the women out of sex work.

The coordinator of Niger’s HIV-AIDS coordination group, Moussa Idé, told IRIN that a 1990s influx of sex workers fleeing a religious Islamic law crackdown on prostitution in neighbouring Nigeria has now tapered off and there are as many local sex workers as foreign ones.

Idé said the government is preparing to launch a nationwide survey in September with sex workers as well as men having sex with men in order to “improve targeting and cut disease prevalence.”

In Niger’s east, there is a year-round steady demand for sex workers he told IRIN. “Socio-economic activities – agriculture, fishing, timber – bring together people from 12 different nationalities who co-exist in permanence,” he said. “All these people, far from their respective homes, live on average half the year near lake [Chad] and go home only when they have made enough money.”

One-hundred kilometres west of Bosso in the region’s capital city, also called Diffa, Mohamane Issa, told IRIN he found out in his fifth year of marriage to his ex-wife – a prostitute – that he was infected by her. He said he lost one child to AIDS. “There are so many prostitutes here in town,” he told IRIN. “There is no push to get them tested.”

There are eight HIV testing centres for less than half a million population spread out over 450 villages, according to the national HIV-AIDS coordination group.

Mother-to-child transmission

Preliminary results from a 2009 government study of HIV infection among pregnant women in Diffa is 2.2 percent, but Diffa region’s health centre deputy director Kiari Fougou L. Aïssa – who oversees two programmes for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission in the region – said not all mothers are getting tested. “There is widespread stigma of being tested and some women are not able to get their husband’s approval,” said Aïssa. “We cannot break up family harmony and can only advise them to inform their spouses.”

Of the centre’s 3,593 women who came to the clinic for pre-natal visits from January until June 2009, 672 were tested and 19 were HIV-positive, the doctor told IRIN.

The national HIV coordination group’s Idé said the group’s goals for Diffa is to increase the rate of HIV testing, boost condom sales in remote places, work more closely with traditional and religious leaders and increase HIV awareness outreach near Lake Chad.

irinnews[/font]

MBABANE, 3 September 2009 (IRIN) - Population growth, adherence to land distribution customs, and a small country are combining to make Swaziland a crowded place, rapidly running out of room to achieve food security.

The population has doubled to more than one million since independence from Britain in 1968, but according to custom each Swazi son is given a portion of land on the family farm, located on communal Swazi Nation Land administered by traditional chiefs, to build a home, cultivate maize and graze cattle.

The effects of relentless subdivision are beginning to be felt in a country where about 80 percent of the population reside in rural areas, under the rule of sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch, King Mswati III, a staunch traditionalist.

"If you divide a meal into smaller and smaller pieces to feed more people there comes a time when everyone goes hungry," Samuel Dlamini, 25, a farmer in the central Manzini region, 70km east of the capital Mbabane, told IRIN.

"When we were children there were eight of us living off this small farm," he said. Dlamini is married with two children, but his three older brothers, their wives and children, and one of his two sisters all still live on the family homestead.

"Now there are 19 people. When we took our wives our father gave each son part of the farm. We must support our families on the parcel, but it's not possible," he said.

Sedentary living is a relatively new concept; in earlier times a pastoralist lifestyle saw Swazis migrating to various seasonal grazing pastures, and it was not until the 1800s that maize, now the staple food, began to be cultivated.

The number of people has finally caught up with the land area available. "There are no new places now for young people to go," Dlamini said.

The growing scarcity of land is moving the goal of achieving food security further out of reach, and a drought in 2007 made nearly half the population dependent on donor feeding schemes.

''We see that the farms are shrinking all the time; we are seeing more and more land going over to housing. We are seeing less cattle production, with less rangeland due to deterioration caused by overgrazing''
Dry weather conditions expected

"It's true; we've noticed what Mr Dlamini is saying. Even the people we give seeds to, they tell us their farms are one hectare or 1.5 hectares, and we ask, 'Is it worth it?' They can't feed themselves," Olga Tsabedze, of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation's Swaziland office, told IRIN.

The land under cultivation is also diminishing. During the 2001/02 season, 71,000 hectares were cultivated with maize, in 2004/05 this dropped to 56,000 hectares, and in 2006/07 - the last year statistics for which were available - the amount of land under maize cultivation fell to 51,000 hectares.

"We see that the farms are shrinking all the time; we are seeing more and more land going over to housing. We are seeing less cattle production, with less rangeland due to deterioration caused by overgrazing," Bheki Bhembi, head of the research department at the Central Bank of Swaziland, told IRIN.

"People feed themselves more by growing maize than raising cattle. With cattle it is more of stock-wealth issue [wealth and status are measured by the number of cattle owned] instead of food production," Bhembi said.

A Swaziland Central Bank report noted that "Prospects for maize production, like all other dry-land agricultural produce, are not encouraging. This bleak outlook is due to unpredictable and unreliable weather conditions. Output will also be negatively affected by rising input costs, coupled with the inherent risks of dry-land production."

Even with good rains, the shrinking size of farms as each new generation carves up the land into smaller slices heightens the threat to food sufficiency. "Some of the agriculture ministry extension officers are encouraging small landholder farmers to pool their land and resources," Tsabedze said.

Eric Simelane, a government agricultural extension officer, told IRIN: "It's economy of scale - if the farmers can patch their fields together to the size they once were, then farming would be more efficient and yields would increase."

irinnews

ZIGUINCHOR, 4 September 2009 (IRIN) - At least 600 people have fled their homes on the outskirts of Ziguinchor, the main city of Senegal’s Casamance region, after clashes between the Senegalese army and separatist rebels.

On 4 September families were seen streaming out of the Diabir neighbourhood – which is just outside of Ziguinchor proper – toting mattresses, televisions, clothing, suitcases and other belongings on their heads, on bicycles or on donkey-carts. People also fled their homes in nearby Baraf.

Many families walked toward areas of Ziguinchor; they told IRIN they were going to join relatives who live in the city. But as of late afternoon at least 150 people were sitting on luggage or on the ground in an area on the edge of Ziguinchor called Grand Yoff.

“We have nowhere to go,” said one man, standing next to his wife and four young sons.

“Rebels came into Diabir,” he said. “Initially we all hid under beds and did not move. Then eventually we decided to leave because we were afraid something worse was to come.”

Heavy weapon fire could be heard in the centre of Ziguinchor throughout the morning of 4 September. The mortar fire followed an attack by rebels of the separatist Movement for the Democratic Forces of Casamance on an army base.

Into the night on 4 September humanitarian organizations and local authorities were evaluating the situation and determining people’s immediate needs.

“It is yet not clear exactly how many people fled their homes,” said Christina de Bruin, head of UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Ziguinchor and UN area security coordinator. “A rapid estimation is that at least 600 people – 85 households – have left the areas of Diabir and Baraf.”

She added: “For UNICEF protection is the first concern. We need to find out first whether people are safe and whether any children are separated from their families.”

UNICEF and other agencies are readying emergency stocks in case of need, including mosquito nets, water filters, tarpaulins and jerry cans.

UNICEF’s de Bruin told IRIN the situation appears to have reached a new level of gravity. “For a long time the situation in Casamance has been described as ‘neither war, nor peace’. But things have degraded significantly in the last month and these latest events, sadly, have a direct impact on the population.”

The governor of Ziguinchor on 4 September called an emergency meeting with UN agencies and their partner organizations.

The UN has temporarily suspended movement of staff outside of Ziguinchor.

The incident marks the third time since 21 August rebels have clashed with the army.

Casamance is the site of one of Africa’s longest-running conflicts, sparked when MFDC separatists launched a rebellion in 1982. The region – where agriculture is the main source of local income – is hit by sporadic violence as a definitive settlement has yet to be achieved, five years after the government and rebels signed a peace agreement.

Vast parts of the lush region are not cultivated because of land mines and the recent fighting has many people afraid to return to their fields and so they risk losing what they recently planted.

irinnews

OUAGADOUGOU, 4 September 2009 (IRIN) - The most destructive rains in Burkina Faso in almost a decade, which have led to seven reported deaths thus far, have forced officials to open the main gate of a hydroelectric dam in the Volta River basin, near the Ghana border, threatening local populations in both countries with additional flooding.

The water rushed out at 90 cubic metres per second when state electricity company, SONABEL opened the gate of Bagré dam at 10am on 4 September, according to the firm’s director of hydroelectric power, Venance Bouda. Before opening the gate, Bouda said the dam was at 86 percent capacity and he estimated it would have reached 93 percent by 5 September.

“Even when we operate normally and release water, some people drown while crossing [the river] downstream,” said the Bouda.

When the gate opened, the water was only 66 millimetres away from the dam’s capacity of 1.7 million cubic metres.

This is the sixth time officials have had to open the reservoir’s gate since its construction in 1994. A similar opening of the dam in 2007 caused flooding in Ghana’s north. Bouda told IRIN officials are trying to control the flow this time so as to not endanger those living downstream of the Volta River. “We anticipate increased levels of water in the reservoir, so cultivated land on the reservoir’s shores and further upstream will be flooded. We warn riverside residents to stay away from the shores,” Bouda told IRIN.

Ghana National Disaster Management Organization’s (NADMO) Diana Boakye told IRIN that despite regular consultations with Burkina Faso officials in recent days about the dam, NADMO had less than 24-hour notice before the gate was opened. “Only days ago, they told us the water level was fine. No one could have expected the intense rains would fill it so quickly.”

NADMO’s regional representatives are trying to warn residents in low-lying river communities to move, she said. In 2007, NADMO had more notice to evacuate and no lives were lost, she pointed out. “Both then and now, it is not enough time to save their fields. There will be inevitable land damage if there is flooding.” While rains have tapered off in southern Ghana, there is still rainfall in the north according to NADMO.

“We do not know if, when and how our population will be affected. There will likely be flooding, especially coupled with the rain we are still getting in the north,” said Boakye. She said it would take more time to allow people to protect their fields, and that early warning is still a weak link in the country’s disaster prevention planning.

“The way it works is through word of mouth. Our meteorology services are not advanced enough to give accurate and timely information.”

In 2008 Burkina Faso officials upped the height of the Bragé dam by 1.5 metres to decrease likelihood of flooding.

Flood response

As of 4 September the Burkina Faso government has estimated it will cost US$152 million to face the consequences of flooding, according to Prime Minister Tertius Zongo. He said the government needed $15 million for immediate humanitarian assistance and infrastructure repair. The rains have destroyed a dam in the capital Ouagadougou and another in the northern Sahel region, damaged 12 bridges in the capital and flooded 75 percent of the country’s main hospital, forcing patient evacuations and early discharges.

The biggest challenge remains stocking the dozens of sites sheltering flood victims with enough drinking water, latrines and lights, government officials stressed.

irinnews

LUNSAR, 4 September 2009 (IRIN) - The child rights act ratified in November 2008 in Sierra Leone criminalizes child labour, but some child rights experts say instead of prosecuting parents, the government should focus instead on getting children into school.

“We don’t want to penalize or criminalize poverty. Many of these parents have few options,” said Annalisa Brusati, child and youth protection coordinator at the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Sierra Leone. “The aim of the act is to reduce child labour, not to have everyone committing crimes. Parents need to be aware of how to make new choices,” she said.

Exploitative labour is defined in the act as work that deprives children of their health, education or development opportunities. Full-time schooling at state-approved schools is required for all under-13’s who must complete primary and junior secondary levels; those aged 13 and above can engage in “light labour” and are not legally required to attend school, according to the act.

An estimated 18,000 children still work or live on Sierra Leone’s streets, according to the government’s National Commission for War-Affected Children’s executive secretary Alhaji Mohamed Kanneh. Most of them are involved in street-selling, stone-breaking, fishing, or work as porters and cooks for diamond miners. Many are deprived of attending school as a result.

Advocacy efforts by child rights groups to pull children out of diamond mines and into school have been successful, Brusati told IRIN, but have not stamped out the practice altogether.

High numbers of street children involved in exploitative labour are partly a hangover from the civil war that officially ended in 2002 and partly because of high living costs and unemployment, said Kanneh.

“A community issue”

Getting children out of work and into school involves all sectors of society, says Josephine Conteh, who set up a primary school to educate working children in Lunsar in northern Sierra Leone. More than 100 working children – many of whom were orphans or separated from their families and all of whom worked full-time as guides to blind beggars – have attended since the school’s opening in 2006, Conteh told IRIN.

“Before this school opened the future of these children was bleak, as they would spend most of their time begging with no consideration to their education,” Conteh said. With no official funding, her school relies on donations.

IRC is helping communities set up child welfare committees to find ways to send working children back to school in each of Sierra Leone’s 148 chiefdoms that make up the country's 14 districts.

“This is a community issue, not a family issue,” said IRC’s Brusati. “Seeing it [child labour] as a community problem will show us the way out.”

Committees that have already been set up have helped families save money for school fees, urged schools to cut fees and encouraged communities to set up funds to support families unable to pay, Brusati told IRIN.

At the district level, the National Commission for War-Affected Children is holding workshops with district councils in Bo, Bombali and Koidu on dangers faced by working street-children and how to get them into schools.

Dangers include greater vulnerability to sexual abuse, accidents, disruption of education, delinquency, health hazards and teenage pregnancies, according to UNICEF.

But national-level progress is slow. A commission to monitor enforcement of the act, including monitoring by-laws, which districts must pass in order to implement it, has been announced but not yet set up, the government’s Kanneh said.

“It [child labour] is a serious embarrassment to the nation because not enough has been done both by the government and other stakeholders to address the problem,” he told IRIN.

The Ministry of Social Welfare charged with enforcing the act receives 1 percent of the government’s annual budget, according to the IRC. The ministry must develop a work plan and budget to implement the act, Brusati told IRIN, for only then can it appeal to the president for more financing.

Attending school is children’s best chance to find more meaningful, less exploitative work when they are adults, said IRC’s Brusati. While recognizing the high unemployment rates across the country, educating children is a vital step to getting youths into a tight labour market, she said.

“Education is a part of breaking the cycle of poverty in which the majority of Sierra Leoneans find themselves…Everyone needs to be educated...not only to negotiate their basic rights but to overcome the lack of skilled labour in this country.”

irinnews

AGADEZ, 3 September 2009 (IRIN) - Four days of intense rains in Niger’s northern Air Mountains and desert towns at its base have affected 7,000 households, damaged 3,500 homes and caused widespread livestock and agriculture losses mostly in the commune of Agadez, according to local officials.

Agadez commune is one of 15 communes in Agadez region.

Intense rains led to a dam breaking 7km from Agadez commune, according to a preliminary government and UN assessment on 2 September. The storms damaged 400 hectares of crop land and at least seven schools in the commune.

The commune’s mayor, Hamma Dilla, told IRIN this is the most intense weather that he can recall in more than 30 years. “But even that flooding was not as bad as what we are seeing now. This [destruction] is the result of … intense continuous rains and the tributary overflowing its banks.”

Sociologist Issouf Bayard who has specialized in Agadez told IRIN that not since pre-independence times has there been an early warning system to alert residents living near the city's various tributaries, fed from mountain rain runoff, of oncoming storms. “People do not know when there is rain in the mountains. It is only when the tributaries rise that people are caught unaware.” He said before independence in 1960, the French military sounded horns to warn people of rising water levels.

Bayard said the departure of the military coupled with the droughts starting in the 1970’s ended this form of early warning. “These dried out tributaries are now where the poorest families and recently arrived migrants settle,” the researcher told IRIN. “With the growing urban population, people built on places they did not even know were former waterways. But we have a proverb in this part of the country: water always finds its way home.”

The official preliminary death toll from flooding is one infant and one adult as of 2 September.

''Water always finds its way home''
In one of the most battered areas on the outskirts of Agadez commune, Azmalam, school director Moussa Ibrah told IRIN the human death toll is too low. "We [residents] are talking about dozens of deaths,” said Ibrah. He said in addition,1,200 livestock have died and all the area homes have fallen.

A vendor in front of the Agadez bus station, Abdallah Alal, told IRIN his shop was vandalized after it collapsed from the rains in the middle of the night. "This boutique was my only source of income. I sold my animals to do business.”

A widow in Agadez commune told IRIN the floods had stranded her with eight children. “This home my husband left us was all we had,” said Aminatou Malam. “And now it is gone along with our food, our animals. Where do we go from here?”

In the neighbouring commune of Tchirozérene, more than 70 homes and one school are completely destroyed, according to the preliminary assessment.


Response

The secretary general of Agadez region and commune mayors have formed a crisis committee, which has set up 11 teams headed by village leaders to conduct house visits to assess damages.

Trucks from Agadez commune are transporting flood victims to schools for temporary lodging, according to mayor Hamma. He said his office has purchased manioc flour and water to distribute to flood victims.

The committee has identified dam repair, lodging flood victims and clean drinking water among its top priorities.

The UN is planning in-depth evaluations in the coming days, according to UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

irinnews

4 September 2009

The pronouncement of Ali Bongo as winner of the presidential elections in Gabon has not gone down well with opposition supporters, throwing the country into turbulence.

The unrest makes for a difficult start to Ali Bongo’s presidency. Already, an employee of a Franco-American business group, Schlumberger, has been seriously wounded and damage has been reported from three petrol filling stations belonging to the French company Total. The opposition leader, Pierre Mamboundou, has announced the death of one of his party members, blaming the current disturbances squarely on the army.

Ali Bongo is calling on all interested parties to respect the election results. According to him, "Gabon is a lawful and democratic country country, the people have spoken and the verdict must be respected."

Opposition supporters claim the French government has been involved in manipulating the election and wasted no time in setting on fire the French consulate at Port-Gentil. There are reports that the French have deployed a battalion to their embassy to protect it.

The French Secretary of State for Cooperation and Francophony, Alain Joyandet, has called on French citizens in Gabon to stay indoors. Speaking before the results were announced, foreign minister Bernard Kouchner said "all measures” had been taken to protect French citizens, but also firmly denied his government's involvement in the elections.

Article excerpted and translated from the original French by Michael Tantoh.

allafrica

NAIROBI, 4 September 2009 (IRIN) - Thousands of drought-affected people in Somalia’s central and southern regions need urgent help after losing most of their livestock, the economy’s mainstay, Sheikh Abdulkadir Ali Omar, the Interior Minister, told IRIN.

"I have been in touch with people throughout the regions and the reports we are getting is that the drought is widespread and the situation of the people is very grave, with water shortages the biggest problem for both animals and people," Omar said on 3 September.

He said almost all the regions were affected. “Livestock are dying in their thousands, with families losing everything.”

He said the drought was forcing many families into towns that had no way of coping. “On the outskirts of most small towns from Gedo [southwest] to Galkayo [northeast], you will now find nomadic families in flimsy shelters looking for help.”

Omar said the transitional government could not address the situation alone and appealed to the international community for assistance. “This is bigger than anything we have seen in a long time. I hope our partners will do their utmost to mitigate the suffering of the people.”

Ahmed Ali Hilowle, president of the self-declared state of Galmudug, in Central region, told IRIN by telephone from Galkayo that most of the area was suffering from prolonged drought: "Even camels are dying. It is a disaster.”

He said: "We had two years of dismal rains and the people are on the verge of dying.” The area is dependent on barkads (water catchments) for water “and almost all are dry. We are now trucking water sometimes over 100km,” he said, adding that one water tanker, with 200 drums [each 200l], costs US$200. “Few, if any, can afford that.”

"Catastrophe" looms

An aid worker in Dusa Mareb, Galgadud’s capital, said the town was already hosting many people displaced from war-torn Mogadishu and that the arrival of pastoralists was overwhelming the host community. He warned: “if the coming Deyr [short] rains fail, we will be facing a major catastrophe”.


The Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU of the UN Food and Agricultural Organization) said in a recent statement the country was facing the worst humanitarian crisis of the past 18 years, with an estimated 3.76 million people - half the population - needing aid.

Omar said the transitional government was prepared to do whatever it could to help the agencies obtain the access they need.

“We will also help them identify reliable local partners who will deliver the aid to those people the foreign agencies cannot reach.”

Meanwhile, the international aid agency Oxfam said the country was suffering the worst drought in a decade and a major increase in conflict.

In a statement issued on 3 September the agency said: "A total failure of the international community to deal effectively with the Somalia crisis and help end the war is resulting in a spiral of human suffering and exodus to neighbouring countries."

It said hundreds of thousands of Somalis who fled the violence were now trapped in horrifically overcrowded or poorly managed camps in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia itself.

“Somalis flee one of the world’s most brutal conflicts and a desperate drought, only to end up in unimaginable conditions in camps that are barely fit for humans. Hundreds of thousands of children are affected, and the world is abandoning the next generation of Somalis when they most need our help. Why does it seem like you matter less in this world if you are from Somalia?” asked Robert van den Berg, Oxfam International’s spokesman for the Horn of Africa.

He called on the international community to "put Somalia top of their list and do more than simply keeping the country on life-support".

irinnews

03 Sep 2009
The son of Gabon's long-time leader Omar Bongo has been declared the winner of the country's presidential election amid protests and allegations of fraud.

The Thursday announcement of Ali Ben Bongo's victory with 42% of the vote sparked a rampage by opposition supporters, with police using teargas and batons to disperse protesters.

The French consulate was torched and the crowd attacked a prison releasing hundreds of inmates, AFP reported.

Hours after the ballots closed on Sunday, all of the country's three main candidates, including opposition leader Pierre Mamboundou and the ex-interior minister Andre Mba Obame, claimed victory with the majority of the vote.

Omar Bongo, who passed away in June, was at the helm of power in the oil-rich nation for four decades. The ruling Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) had endorsed his son as their candidate.

The late leader was seen as a major element in enhancing Paris' influence in the former French colony as well as Central Africa.

Paris reportedly warned around 10,000 French nationals to avoid going outside as rumors of a fix in the election aided by France fueled anger in the country.

presstv

04 Sep 2009
The eccentric Libyan leader, Muammar Qaddafi, will ask the United Nations to split Switzerland up among the Alpine country's neighboring states -- France, Germany and Italy.

As open wounds keep the two sides from reconciliation, Qaddafi wants to propose Switzerland's disintegration The Telegraph reported on Friday.

"Switzerland is a world mafia, not a state," he said.

The 67-year-old president is to come up with the proposal when his country takes over presidency of the UN General Assembly later this month.

The motion, however, contradicts with the UN principle of respect for territorial integrity.

Tripoli and Bern fell out last year when Swiss officials accused Qaddafi's son, Hannibal and his wife of assaulting the servants at a Geneva hotel. The issue was set to grow into a legal battle but the complainants withdrew their claims saying they had been compensated.

Libya subsequently expelled the Swiss diplomats in the country and suspended visas for Swiss citizens. Two Swiss businessmen have also been detained for apparently violating the ban.

Last month, Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz appeared in person in Tripoli and offered his apologies. Merz has been pressured to resign after the move which has been denounced in Switzerland as a sign of weakness.

The two sides are to task a bilateral panel with investigating the differences over last year's arrest.

presstv

05 Sep 2009
Major rainfalls have hit West Africa causing serious floods while affecting more than 350,000 people in the region, United Nations reports.

The worst affected countries by torrential rains and floods are Burkina Faso, Niger, Ghana, Guinea, Senegal and Benin.

"Since June, the rainy season has been more significant, there has been much more rain than usual," said Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

"Just like in 2007 when serious flooding had affected almost 800,000 people in this region, we have the impression that this year again, torrential rain has affected an enormous number of people," she said.

Five people have been killed and 150,000 affected in Burkina Faso, while in Ghana, 25 deaths have been linked to the floods.

Ten thousand people have been affected by the floods in Niger and Guinea while some 3,500 homes have been destroyed.

In Benin, 20,000 people have been affected while in Senegal, emergency services had to be called in to drain out water which had swamped 30,000 homes.

presstv

A Tanzanian campaign to eradicate mosquitoes includes indoor residual spraying

DAR ES SALAM, 3 September 2009 (IRIN) - Health officials in Tanzania are confident they are on track to eradicate malaria deaths by 2015, even if significant challenges stand in the way of the target.

The National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) says malaria is a leading killer in the East African country, infecting about 18 million people annually.

The disease is responsible for between 60,000 and 80,000 deaths each year – at least nine deaths every hour - mainly pregnant women and children under five.

Official records also show that 30-40 percent of attendance at health centres and hospitals are related to malaria cases, burdening overstretched facilities.

Malaria, according to the National Planning Commission (NPC) costs the country an estimated loss that is equivalent to 3.4 percent of gross domestic product.

Alex Mwita, a senior NMCP official, said initiatives being implemented under the Roll Back Malaria programme, such as insecticide-treated bed nets and indoor residual spraying (IRS), had helped reduce malaria cases, along with deaths of children under five and infants (younger than one).

“Under-five deaths have dropped to 91 per 1,000 live births in 2008, down from 147 in 1999,” Mwita said, presenting a paper in Dar es Salaam recently.

He said that although the decline could not be attributed to the fall in malaria cases alone, research showed a decline in prevalence of the disease had a big impact on childhood and maternal mortality.

“Since intervention initiatives have proven to work, we are now scaling up distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets, indoor spraying and behavioural change communication,” Mwita said.


Bed nets

Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete told the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Margaret Chan, who visited Tanzania recently, that his government was committed to attaining universal bed net coverage by December 2010 and eliminating malaria by 2015.

Kikwete told Chan there were plans to distribute 14 million mosquito bed nets within the next 16 months to cover all households. The move complements the current programme where all children under five are due to receive bed nets free of charge. NMCP said in its latest report that so far 30 percent of children under five had nets.

The UN Special Envoy for Malaria, Raymond Chambers, told a news conference that the Global Fund for AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis had approved a grant of US$110 million to Tanzania to support the procurement of 14 million bed nets.

"We are impressed by Tanzania's initiatives and political commitment shown by the country's leadership. It is our hope that malaria will be eliminated within the next seven years as planned," he said.

Chambers, however, said the challenge was to make all 40 million Tanzanians sleep under the insecticide-treated bed nets. "There must be an aggressive campaign by politicians and the media on the need to use the bed nets for the intended purpose instead of fishing," said Chambers, who accompanied the WHO chief on her visit to Tanzania.

"I know there is a lack of adequate resources, health personnel and infrastructure. I am, however, convinced that you don't have a shortage of political will," Chan said.

Treatment costs

David Mwakyusa, Tanzania’s Health Minister, said since 2006, the country had used Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) as a first-line treatment for uncomplicated malaria and the drug had shown great success.

The minister, however, expressed concern over the cost of the medicine in pharmacies and private outlets, where a dose is up to 15,000 shillings (about $11).

He said that in public facilities a drug called ALU is prescribed and prices are affordable at between 300 shillings and 1,000 shillings (about 20 cents and 80 cents).

“We are working on a programme that will enable ACT to be available in all public and private facilities at affordable prices,” he said.


Photo: John Kulekana/IRIN
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan greets a mother and child at a health centre in Bagamoyo town near Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on 18 August 2009
Drug resistance

Mwakyusa said his ministry was following up reports of malaria parasites’ resistance to ACT along the Cambodia-Thailand border earlier this year.

Chan blamed doctors and patients. She said there were cases where patients did not use the whole dose and in others, doctors under-prescribed the medicines.

“If patients use only half a dose, there is the likelihood for the parasites to mutate and develop resistance to drugs administered,” she said. “We must be very careful in handling and administration of medicines,” she added.

Financial crisis

Despite the confidence expressed by government officials, the NMPC is worried that the global financial crisis might undermine the country’s efforts to wipe out malaria by 2015.

“When you have financial problems in countries like the United States, which contribute heavily to the Global Fund and other anti-malaria programmes, you cannot rule out adverse effects on our initiatives,” Mwita said. “Eradication of malaria by 2015 is possible, but I can assure you it is a tall order,” he added.

Zanzibar success

In semi-autonomous Zanzibar, authorities said they were on target to eliminate malaria by 2015.

“We have been recording admirable success in combating malaria in the islands through multiple interventions. We have managed to reduce the prevalence from 41 percent in 2001 to 0.4 percent this year,” Zanzibar Malaria Control Programme (ZMCP) manager, Abdullah Suleiman, told Chan.

However, he said, sustaining these achievements remained the biggest challenge for Zanzibar, and availability of funds was critical in sustaining the anti-malaria programme.

irinnews

A southern Sudanese woman recovers from a gunshot wound after surviving a recent massacre (file photo): Officials say women and children are now being deliberately targeted in escalating attacks

NAIROBI, 4 September 2009 (IRIN) - Women and children are being increasingly targeted in the escalating attacks against communities in Southern Sudanese states, exacerbating the dire humanitarian situation, say officials.

"We have seen a drastic escalation in violence across Southern Sudan this year - from the Equatorial States besieged by LRA [rebel Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army] attacks, to the brutal clashes in Jonglei, Upper Nile and Lake States," Jonathan Whittall, head of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Southern Sudan, said.

"The violent clashes are different to the traditional 'cattle rustling' that normally occurs each year," he said in a 3 September statement. "Women and children, usually spared in this fighting, are now deliberately targeted and the number of deaths [is] higher than the number of wounded."

On 1 September, Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul Yak of the Episcopal Church said the church no longer viewed the clashes as "tribal conflicts", but rather as "deliberately organized attack[s] on civilians by those that are against the peace in Southern Sudan".

At least 140,000 people have been displaced by clashes between communities in Jonglei, Upper Nile and Lake States. Separate attacks by the LRA in the Equatorial states have also reportedly forced 65,000 Sudanese from their homes this year.

"This combination of violent attacks across the region aggravates an already dire humanitarian situation for the people of Southern Sudan," MSF warned.

In the latest attack, 42 people were reported killed in a 29 August clash between communities in Twic East County, Jonglei State. More than 60 were wounded and 24,000 displaced from 17 villages, mainly in Panyangor and Kongor.

"In the last six violent incidents that MSF responded to in Jonglei and Upper Nile States over the last six months... 1,057 people were killed in contrast to 259 wounded, with more than 60,000 displaced," the medical charity said. "This is new - the intention is to attack a village and to kill. The result is a population living in total fear, with significant humanitarian and medical needs."

Undermining CPA

Continuing violence, the Archbishop warned, could damage the smooth implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), under whose auspices elections are being planned for 2010 and a referendum on possible Southern autonomy in 2011.

"The timeframe given for the elections and referendum is already too short for the democratic processes to be effectively organized, and by the provisional dates chosen for voting... much of the South will already be suffering from logistics problems caused by the onset of the wet season," he warned in a statement.

"This is an indication to the citizens of the Sudan that the people on the ground are not being regarded or included in the politics of peace and that we are vulnerable to future violations of the CPA and an uncertain future for peace in the Sudan."

Food shortages

Separately, the UN World Food Programme warned that an urgent food security situation had been created in the region by poor rainfall, continued high levels of insecurity and high cereal and low livestock prices.

According to the recently released Annual Needs and Livelihood Assessment Mid-Year Review, about 1.5 million people in Southern Sudan face severe food insecurity, while aid delivery has been complicated by insecurity and poor roads.

irinnews

4 September 2009

Harare — THE Sadc Summit to be held next week in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has a difficult task in convincing President Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai to bring to finality the outstanding issues threatening the Global Political Agreement (GPA).

The 14-member bloc is increasingly coming under pressure to resolve the stalemate between Zanu PF and Tsvangirai's MDC, with calls for Sadc to be firm in pressing Zimbabwe to implement what they agreed on last September.

Sources in the MDC-T said while some progress has been made, there were serious issues threatening the stability of the inclusive government.

Tsvangirai's MDC formation wants Sadc to ensure the full implementation of the GPA and to see key issues outlined in the January 27 Pretoria Sadc summit communiqué resolved.

These unresolved issues, they said, were related to the appointments of the provincial governors, Governor of the Reserve Bank and Attorney-General, the swearing-in of deputy Agriculture minister Roy Bennett, and the arrests of MDC-T legislators.

However, Zanu PF is maintaining that it is the MDC which has in fact not fulfilled key elements agreed to under the GPA.

Zanu PF is accusing MDC-T of not doing anything to address the removal of sanctions against Zimbabwe and to stop the beaming of anti-Zimbabwe messages by "pirate" radio station.

Presidential spokesperson George Charamba was quoted in the state media saying sanctions were the greatest threat to the survival of the inclusive government and that President Mugabe would draw the summit's attention to the issue.

Meanwhile, head of a five-member delegation of the United States Congress, Congressman Gregory Meeks of the 6th District of New York told the Zimbabwe Independent that the removal of sanctions would depend on the commitment of all the parties to fulfilling the GPA.

"Outright human rights violations and other things -- there has to be something that can show that there is going to be a change. I believe that the first thing that has to happen is that everybody, both sides, have to live up to their agreements with the Global Political Agreement," Meeks said.

"Show us that you can live up to that agreement and then that tells me that maybe we should change our policies because there is a difference. But if you can't even live up to that agreement, how can I convince my colleagues to change the policies?" he said.

The delegation was in Zimbabwe for a two-day visit during which they met Tsvangirai, Mugabe, Speaker of Parliament Lovemore Moyo and the co-chairpersons of the Parliamentary Select Committee on the Constitution.

The Sadc summit of January26-27 resolved amongst other issues that the equitable distribution of ministerial posts would be reviewed after six months.

MDC-T wants this review to be part of the summit in Kinshasa.

The review might see government ministries being reallocated if Sadc leaders adhere to its resolution.

The MDC-T source said: "The MDC is expecting that the review process will be part of the next Sadc summit agenda in Kinshasa and the MDC president plans to attend the summit with his delegation."

Tsvangirai is expected, the source said, to make a separate submission for consideration of the Sadc chairman, South African government and the summit regarding the need for the review of equitable distribution of ministerial posts.

The inclusive government, the sources said, has also had problems related to interpretation of certain sections of the GPA, accusing other parties of implementing it in bad faith.

MDC-T will bring to the attention of Sadc the unprocedural alterations to the final Act of Constitutional Amendment 19.

The Act signed into law, the sources said, differed significantly from the Bill assented to by parliament, thereby rendering it null and void.

On the appointments of the provincial governors, Reserve Bank governor and Attorney-General, the MDC sources said these were done in violation of the Memorandum of Understanding.

These, the sources said, were not reviewed as outlined in the Sadc Communiqué of January 27.

The MDC-T now wants the posts of Governor of the Reserve Bank and Attorney-General to be declared vacant and subsequently filled in line with article 20.1.3 (p) of the GPA, which states that the president has to make such key appointments in consultation with the Prime Minister.

On the provincial governors, MDC-T wants the five people it chose to be sworn in this month and it is also demanding that Bennett be sworn in immediately.

It also wants the issue regarding the mandate of the Ministry of Information Technology, whose communication department was taken away, to be addressed by the summit.

"The chairing of Cabinet in the absence of President Mugabe is clearly outlined in the GPA but Zanu PF continues to subvert this issue. There is also continued abuse of the law and selective application of the rule of law," said one source.

Meanwhile, Africa director at Human Rights Watch Georgette Gagnon said Southern African leaders should stop looking at Zimbabwe through "rose-coloured glasses".

"The region's leaders need to press Zimbabwe openly and publicly for human rights reforms to prevent the country from backsliding into state-sponsored violence and chaos."

allafrica

NAIROBI, 3 September 2009 (IRIN) - At least 1,556 East African Community (EAC) military personnel are participating in a three-week joint field training exercise codenamed Ex–Mlima Kilimanjaro (Mount Kilimanjaro) 2009 in Arusha and Tanga, Tanzania, to share knowledge on the regional challenges in peace support, counter-terrorism and disaster management.

The EAC personnel, comprising representatives from Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, will also provide medical, veterinary and infrastructure rehabilitation services to neighbouring communities.

The exercise is being conducted under the EAC Memorandum of Understanding on Co-operation in Defence Matters, which also provides for EAC partner states' armies to offer mutual assistance in disaster management and technical co-operation. The MOU is set to be upgraded into a Protocol.

Three other joint, mainly command post, military exercises were held in 2005; Ex-Ongoza Njia (lead the way) on peace support operations and Ex-Trend Marker on counter-terrorism, and another in 2006, the Ex-Hot Springs, on disaster management. Kenya and Uganda have in the past held joint exercises to address the cattle-rustling problem in the West Pokot and Karamoja border areas.

This exercise is the first to be fully funded by the EAC states.

Future joint military training will involve more elaborate field exercises and battle simulations with larger numbers of personnel and military hardware, says EAC.

allafrica

03 Sep 2009
Arab League Secretary General, Amr Moussa, has demanded the dispatch of more troops to the Somali capital Mogadishu by Arab states.

The additional troops are needed to help the African Union (AU) troops who are fighting rebels in the war-torn country.

Moussa said that Arab troops will bring back law and order to Somalia due to their neutrality, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Meanwhile, al-Shabaab militant group leader, Abu Subeyr, described Somaliland Administration leaders as non-Muslims and vowed to attack them.


presstv

04 Sep 2009
At least 6 civilians have lost their lives and eleven others injured during fierce fighting between African Union soldiers and Somali rebels.

Violence broke out after the local fighters launched an attack on the international forces under the AU mandate for the establishment of peace in the lawless Horn of Africa state, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Heavily-armed Al Shabaab militia on Thursday attacked the Burundian peacekeeper's base in northern Mogadishu with portable rocket launchers.

Despite a public call by Somali clerics for the renunciation of bloodshed in the holy month of Ramadan, Al Shabaab guerillas intensified their anti-government campaign and vowed to hammer out the foreign troops during the Muslim's holy period of fasting.

There are conflicting reports on the number of casualties inflicted upon the adversaries in the assault as each side claims to have slaughtered 'dozens' of the opponents.

Living conditions in the poor violence-plagued nation have exacerbated as more families struggle to survive the dire humanitarian situation in the country.

Recently, there have been reports of missing children as parents fear that they might be recruited as child soldiers for Somali rebels.

presstv

03 Sep 2009
A renowned aid agency has drawn attention to the deplorable condition of refugee camps in Somalia, decrying the living standards as "barely fit for humans."

Oxfam, a confederation of more than 13 aid organizations worldwide, on Thursday slammed the swamped and badly managed camps in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, which shelter hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the deadly civil war gripping the country.

The agency said that the international community had failed Somalia, which has been struggling to rebuild itself with the formation of a new government, by not doing enough to end the war.

It added that the suffering and mass exodus of Somalis to neighboring countries has come at a time when Somalia is also struggling with hits worst drought in a decade.

"Somalis flee one of the world's most brutal conflicts and a desperate drought, only to end up in unimaginable conditions in camps that are barely fit for humans," Robbert Van den Berg, a spokesman for Oxfam International in the Horn of Africa, was quoted by CCN.

One example of overcrowded camps is the Dadaab camp in northeastern Kenya. Originally meant to hold 90,000 refugees, it now has a population of 300,000 people that rises by some 8,000 new arrivals each month.

Oxfam has called on the Kenyan government to allocate more land, adding that the war has displaced some 1.4 million people and prompted 500,000 more to flee to nearby countries.

Somalia had lacked a functioning government since warlords overthrew Mohamed Siad Barre. The new government of President Sharif Ahmed, elected in January, has been fighting a heavy battle with rebels, especially in the capital of Mogadishu.

The clashes have left scores of people dead this month alone, prompting a call by the Arab League on Thursday for troops from Arab countries to assist the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia.


presstv

NAIROBI, 2 September 2009 (IRIN) - Somalia has experienced conflict since 1991 when the late President Mohamed Siad Barre's government was overthrown by opposition forces. Up to 2006, the fighting was largely between clan-based warlords clashing over territory and resources. In the process, one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world was created.

In 2006, Islamic groups in Mogadishu fought fierce battles against a combined force of the warlords and defeated them. The groups, known as the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), initially enjoyed considerable civilian and business support from a community fed up with insecurity in areas controlled by the warlords, including the capital.

The UIC ranks contained both radical elements, in the form of Al-Shabab, and moderate members, but the radicals were a small minority. From June-December 2006, it brought unprecedented calm to Mogadishu and other areas of south and central Somalia.

In December 2006, Ethiopian forces, with backing from the United States - which regarded the UIC as a terrorist organisation - entered Somalia and installed the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in Mogadishu, where it had hardly made its presence felt since coming into being in 2004 after two years of talks in Kenya.

Subsequently, fierce fighting continued between UIC remnants, including Al-Shabab and their supporters, and the combined forces of Ethiopia and the TFG. Hundreds of thousands of civilians were forced to flee their homes.

In December 2008, the Ethiopians withdrew from Somalia, leaving a small African Union (AMISOM) force to defend the government.

In January 2009, a peace deal signed in Djibouti between the UN-backed TFG and a faction of the opposition, the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) saw the creation of a parliament which elected Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed as president of the TFG. The former UIC chairman was considered by many as a moderate Islamist.

Many Somalis hoped Ahmed’s election and the departure of Ethiopian troops would end the violence and launch a new era of peace in the country. They were wrong.

Ahmed’s government was opposed by a breakaway group from his own ARS, led by his former ally Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys. Aweys, who was based in Asmara, Eritrea, returned to Somalia and set up Hisbul-Islam (Party of Islam).

The Djibouti peace deal was also opposed by Al-Shabab, which had long split from the main UIC.

Whereas previous struggles for power in Somalia were fought along the lines of the country's complex clan system, the current conflict is, ostensibly at least, a war between groups with different interpretations of Islam.

The protagonists

TFG forces comprise fighters who used to serve various warlords, former members of the UIC, clan militia and Ethiopian-trained forces. These disparate groups have weak central command and control, despite the government’s efforts, so are rarely able to carry out a coordinated attack. There have been incidents of fighting between the different units.

The main threat to the TFG is posed by Al-Shabab. It is on a US terror list and is accused of having links with Al-Qaeda. The group controls much of southern and central Somalia, including parts of Mogadishu. Al-Shabab is reportedly led by a shadowy figure who goes by the name of Abu Zubeyr. His real name, according to Somali sources, is Ahmed Godane and he is originally from secessionist Somaliland. His main contact is through taped messages given to Somali radio stations. The group's professed aim is to spread Islam across the globe.

The movement has been accused of kidnapping, assassinating government officials and journalists, and other criminal activity.

While a keynote of Al-Shabab's official rhetoric is that clan affiliation and geographic origin should play no part in governance, and that any Somali should be able to serve as "amir", or leader, in any part of the country, this policy does not appear to be followed in central Somalia, where only locals are appointed amirs.

Al-Shabab views President Ahmed as a traitor to the Islamic cause and has described him and his government as "Murtadiin" (apostates). It believes in the strict application of Sharia law.

Like Al-Shabab, Hisbul-Islam is also fighting the TFG but is not known to engage in kidnapping and assassinations. It also differs in outlook. Hisbul-Islam is inward-looking and concerned with local rather than international issues, according to Somali analysts. Aweys, its leader, considers the Djibouti peace deal a betrayal. The group is reportedly supported by Eritrea, a charge Eritrea consistently denies.

Hisbul-Islam insists it will stop fighting if all "foreign forces" leave Somalia, including AMISOM troops (see below).

Ahlu Sunna Waljama is a Sufi sect, regarded as more moderate in its interpretation of Islam than Al-Shabab. It joined the fighting in late December 2008, dislodging Al-Shabab from the towns of Guri-Eil and Dusamareb in Galgadud region. It now controls all of Galgadud in central Somalia.

Ahlu Sunna Waljama has two branches. The first was formed by Sufi clerics and enjoys support from Ethiopia. This branch is mainly concentrated in central regions. The other is led by former warlords, who apparently are using the name to reinvent themselves. This group is mainly in the south around Gedo, Bay and Bakol regions. They have some links to the TFG.


African forces
AMISOM, staffed mainly by troops from Uganda and Burundi, has been in the country since 2007. In the past the force was confined to protecting the president and prime minister and vital infrastructure, such as the airport and port. In recent months its troops have been drawn into the fighting as insurgents targeted them. Somalis have accused the force of indiscriminate shelling when responding to attacks, a charge they deny.

The 5,000 or so AMISOM troops, supported by the US and UN, are concentrated in Mogadishu.

Ethiopian troops

In January 2009, Ethiopia said it had completed the withdrawal of its forces from Somalia. Since then there have been reports, denied by the Ethiopians, of Ethiopian troops in parts of central Somalia. Local sources in Beletweyne town told IRIN Ethiopian forces entered the town on 28 August and are still there.

irinnews